Peter went to his new home today, and I have to admit I cried - I was really attached to that little guy. His personality reminded me so much of his great-great-grandmother, Temma.

John and Kathy were thrilled to get their pup, and as you can see in this photo, John was just a LITTLE bit excited, ha ha! I know Peter is going to have a great time up in the northern Maine woods, and I know John and Kathy are going to love the stuffing out of him!



On another note, I finished Harry Potter last evening, and it was fantastic!

Today Bugs-Nushi went to his new home in northern NY. We got up early and got everyone fed and exercised, so we could meet Steve about an hour north of here, saving him two hours driving time, as he already had a long drive ahead of him. It was sad seeing my little Buggy (at 46 pounds, not exactly little, but still my baby puppy) leave, but I know he's in a super home and is going to love the kids and his new brother, Bailey the Viszla! Here is Bugs-Nushi with Steve and Bailey at his new home.







I hear that he's already having a great time leaping and splashing in the doggy wading pool!

I was really hoping that when we got home, my copy of the new Harry Potter book would be waiting at the door...alas, it was not to be! All afternoon I waited, looking out the window every time I heard what I thought might be the UPS truck go by. By 3 pm I was starting to get pretty irritated, and told Marc if it wasn't here in an hour, off to Target I was going! About 5 minutes before I was going to leave, the mailman came...did he bring my book? Nope, he stuck some letters in the mailbox and pulled away. Wait, wait!! The mail truck was backing up! Yes, there it is, the last Harry Potter! I couldn't contain myself, I opened the window and said, "I've been waiting for that all day!" Our mailman laughed and handed it through the window to me. I'm about 120 pages into it now, and think I may be reading through the night!

Last night we had severe thunderstorms and torrential downpours through most of the evening. I took a shower and came back downstairs to get dinner started, but stopped for a minute to watch something that caught my eye on the news. In the meantime, Trick came running inside from the back yard, soaking wet...I quickly thought about covering myself up with the comforter just in case he shook, but he ran past me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, he turned around, ran up right in front of me, and you guessed it - shook like a maniac! I got wetter than I was when I was in the shower! He then tossed his head and pranced around a bit, quite pleased with himself, and trotted off to his bed.

Marc and I looked at each other and burst out laughing - outsmarted again!

One of the things I love the most about being a breeder is seeing the quirky little traits that get carried down from generation to generation. I thought of that this morning, as Bugs and Peter came in from the rain, and Bugs trotted in with a sassy gait, shaking his head back and forth as if to say, "I am hot stuff and you'd better know it!" That smarty-pants attitude comes directly down from his great-grandmother, Karma, and I smile and think of her every time I see it.

Karma was the most conceited dog I had ever seen - she was beautiful, and she knew it, from the moment she was born. She was much spoiled, as we hadn't had a white in many years at that point, and she was so cute, so smart, and so fresh, that everyone fell under her spell. When I would call her, she would trot over, shaking her head and swaying her butt end - it was so funny and so distinctive, it was a purely "Karma" move. Her son, Trick, does the same thing - of course, he's another dog who thinks the sun rises and sets upon his whim! Dylan, Bug's sire, and Trick's son, doesn't do it, but his littermate, Stormy, does. And it got passed on to Bugs.

Even though we lost Karma a couple of years ago, its nice to see that part of her lives on

In case you haven't seen him on our website, Flyer is a big dog - he's a HUGE dog - 30 inches tall at the shoulder, and weighing in at about 165 pounds. Add a big thick coat on to that, and he looks more like a pony than an Akita! He's very gentle with his family members, and is a very well behaved dog around the house, but because of his size, we generally don't eat when he's loose in the house with us...who wants a massive head drooling in their lap while they are trying to eat something?

Last night we were having some severe thunderstorms and heavy downpours at the time when Flyer usually goes outside for his nightly exercise, so he got to stay in and watch TV with us. Marc and I were having a mug of ice cream for dessert while watching Ballykissangel, and Flyer was being a good boy - mostly laying in front of the fan, and not doing a whole lot of drooling. When Marc finished his ice cream, I told him to offer the mug to Flyer. Whoa!! Flyer had never had an ice cream treat before, in all his 9 and a half years, and he dove into that mug like the champion ice cream mug licker his mother, Temma, had been. He then came over to me, and I offered him my mug, and he licked that out lickety-split with a big smile on his face. I'm glad to see this talent was passed down, because quite frankly, some of our younger dogs just never could either figure out how to do it, or just didn't like ice cream!

So nearly a year after Temma's death, we have another champion mug licker - Flyer! He's certainly not the dog I would expect to take over the title, LOL!